KATE
"Kate," he says in a broken whisper. "Listen to me."
I give the closest thing I can manage to a laugh. "What do you think I've been trying to do?" I step away when Michael steps forward; I refuse to be pulled into his game again. "I have given you so many chances to tell me, Michael. I was listening, and you weren't saying anything."
"What did Luke tell you?" Michael chokes out. For half a second I allow myself to feel pity for him. He looks utterly shocked, lost, and devastated. But I quickly snap out of it.
"Everything," I breathe, watching as the one word causes Michael's knees to buckle.
"No," he says, his head falling into his hands. "No no no no no." The word comes out in a constant stream of denial, a breathless whisper of pain.
"Michael," I whisper. I can't even begin to discern the emotions in my own heart, but don't understand his reaction. "Why didn't you just tell me?"
Michael is quiet for a moment, his head cradled in his hands. Suddenly he raises his head and steps towards me, his voice louder than it has been since he walked in. "Do you think I wanted you to know that? Do you think I'm proud of that story? I can't-I can't even-I don't want to think about it, if I could find a way to erase the memories from that time, I would do it in a heartbeat! But I can't, I can't go back! I can't change it! And do you know how that hurts? Knowing that because of me, someone's life is ruined? Because of me, Emily Allen will never walk again? Do you think that's something I want to tell people?"
"It wasn't your fault," I murmur, stepping towards him.
"Don't say that to me," Michael groans, backing away from me. "Don't. Do you know how many people have said that to me over the years?"
"Because it's true," I insist, softening my voice and reaching my hands out for his. But he only draws further away.
"No, it's not!" He shouts. "Do you know how many times I've replayed that night in my mind? How many things I could have done differently? If I hadn't-if I hadn't gone to that stupid party in the first place, if I had just left it alone-" What little resolve I had left vanishes with the crack in Michael's voice, the tears that he lets fall on his face.
"Michael," I whisper again, reaching for him.
"No, stay away from me!" He yells, jumping backwards. "This-you-I-this ruined everything, Kate! I have spent years trying to forget that, years trying to build a future in spite of the past! And what do you do? You go and drag it up again like it's nothing to you!"
His words feel like a slap in the face, and I recoil. Anger rages past sympathy in my bloodstream, bringing words to my lips that I have to bite back before I do more damage than I am prepared to fix. "Michael," I say shortly. He looks at me, eyes blazing. "I didn't drag this up. Emily came to me. She came to me."
"And you should have just let me handle it, like I said I would! You called her back, didn't you? That's how she found you, isn't it?" He roars.
"No!" I scream back. "You asked me not to call her and I didn't! She came to my office!"
"This all could have been avoided if you didn't have to be so fucking nosy and make Luke tell you!" Michael roars. "This is not your story. This does not belong to you, you had no right to-"
"Do not try and blame this on me!" I scream in his face, my voice ripping out of my throat and causing my headache to return. "How can you say that I didn't have a right to know? Emily Allen called me. She called me, Michael, not you! I have every right to know what she wants!"
